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Curiouser and curiouser: a riddle at the ALICE detector

12/09/25

Sarah Charley

In 2023, the ALICE experiment was ready for their best year yet, until a mysterious signal threatened everything. As the LHC wraps up its 2025 lead-ion run, physicists recall how they worked together to solve the puzzle.

09/01/05

Car retirement

Louis Barrett, physicist at Western Washington University, drives a lot. His daily commute to the university, located in Bellingham, Washington, is more than 80 miles.

09/01/05

The secret lives of stars

Donning plastic 3D glasses and turning out the lights, a small group of astrophysicists intently watch the universe projected on the wall.

09/01/05

Spilled milk

Almost in time with the rhythmic open-mouthed chewing and the occasional call for more ketchup during lunchtime at Fermilab's day care center comes the repeated mantra, "Careful of your milk."

09/01/05

Niobium

More than 500 tons of niobium would go into building the ILC. What's so great about niobium? Where does it come from? And is the Earth's supply going to run out?

09/01/05

Bathsheba Grossman: Digital sculpture

Based on mathematical structures, Bathsheba Grossman's metal artworks are an example of digital sculpture given form.

09/01/05

Around the world

Travel is an integral part of the life and work of particle physicists. Since the beginning of the year, some 30 physicists known as the Quantum Diarists have criss-crossed the world to meet collaborators at distant accelerators, attend conferences, teach a seminar, or interview for jobs.

09/01/05

Super-fast super-sensitive detectors

Only detectors with the greatest precision capabilities will measure up to the machine seeking to explore supersymmetry, dark matter, the Higgs mechanism, and new physics that hasn't yet been imagined.

09/01/05

Memorable Fourth

Holiday weekends are meant to be special, but nine Fermilab employees got a dose of unwanted excitement this Fourth of July.

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